15 March 1864

Kessler, Thomas J., fl. 1843-1868

Autograph letter signed

Title: to his friends

Writes to his friends from Camp Douglas. Reports they will be leaving camp Douglas tomorrow and will head to Annapolis, Maryland. Believes they will finally go into battle. Comments he did not get paid enough to send any money home. Informs them that he sent a small package with his band equipment home. The letter has a watermark on the top left hand corner. Letter is addressed to his friends but envelope is addressed to his father, A. P. Kessler.

GLC03523.52.40

29 March 1864

Kessler, Thomas J., fl. 1843-1868

Autograph letter signed

Title: to his friends

Writes to his friends from Camp Douglas. Discusses the weather. Describes how green everything is in Maryland. Complains about another soldier exaggerating his sickness to get a discharge. Comments the other soldier should have been discharged a while ago. Notes he will not live long because he is consumptive (tuberculosis). The letter has a watermark on the top left hand corner. Letter is addressed to his friends but envelope is addressed to his father, A. P. Kessler.

GLC03523.52.41

1 April 1864

Kessler, Thomas J., fl. 1843-1868

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Elizabeth N. Kessler

Writes to his sister from camp. Reports on the sickness back home and in camp. Writes, "we have 8 or 9 kinds of lice five or six kinds of [each] put these altogether would make it rather sickly…" Notes she should not fret too much about the sickness at home. Comments on the miserable food. Request she writes him back with the latest news. The letter has a watermark on the top left hand corner.

GLC03523.52.42

5 April 1864

Morgan, George, fl. 1864

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Libbie Kessler

Writes to his friend from Camp Blue Springs. Discusses the weather. Notes they will not be doing any hard marches before the fall of Richmond, Virginia. Writes, "the fall of Richmond which I judge will come to pass before long for Gen. grant is the man to take it if it can be taken." The letter has a watermark on the top left hand corner.

GLC03523.52.43

7 April 1864

Kessler, Thomas J., fl. 1843-1868

Autograph letter signed

Title: to A. P. Kessler

Writes to his father from camp. Reports they will not get a discharge. Comments the officers voted to keep the band and have promised to buy them new instruments, provide back pay, and have pledged themselves to prompt payment hereafter. Comments that he has two years left in the service and believes he can withstand it. Relays an incident involving two privates who robbed a church. List the prices of food. The letter has a watermark on the top left hand corner.

GLC03523.52.44

12 April 1864

Kessler, Thomas J., fl. 1843-1868

Autograph letter signed

Title: to his brother

Writes to his brother from camp. Discusses the weather. Reports seeing General Ambrose E. Burnside pass through his camp. Notes there have been thousands of soldiers pouring into their camp. Describes oyster fishing and growing tobacco as the town's main livelihood.

GLC03523.52.45

15 April 1864

Kessler, Thomas J., fl. 1843-1868

Autograph letter signed

Title: to his friends

Writes to his friends from camp. Reports that his band has broken up and they are now waiting for orders. Believes they will either be transferred into a brigade band or will be discharged. Expresses his disappointment with the officers for not keeping their word regarding payment to their band. The letter has a watermark on the top left hand corner. Letter is addressed to his friends but envelope is addressed to his father, A. P. Kessler.

GLC03523.52.46

circa 1864

Kessler, Thomas J., fl. 1843-1868

Autograph letter signed

Title: to A. P. Kessler [incomplete]

Writes to his father. Discusses the farm and the prospects of his father buying a new farm. Comments he does not believe he will be fit enough to work on a farm or to do any hard work. Reports on a battle that took place a week ago. Notes they lost over 1000 men and the rebels lost ten men to their one as well as two of their generals. Part of the letter is missing. The letter has a watermark on the top left hand corner.

GLC03523.52.47

20 April 1864

Kessler, Thomas J., fl. 1843-1868

Autograph letter signed

Title: to A. P. Kessler

Writes to his father from camp. Reports his band has broken up and their case (an appeal for a discharge) is now before the Secretary of War. Informs him he is hoping for a discharge. Discusses the price of potatoes and apples.

GLC03523.52.48

20 April 1864

Kessler, Thomas J., fl. 1843-1868

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Henry Kessler

Writes to his brother from camp. Describes living in small tents with three other men. Reports not having a cook or a stove. Notes they do all their cooking over the fire, meet twice a day for bread and coffee, and get three meals a day. Writes, " I am harty [sic] enough to eat a raw mule and chase the rider."

GLC03523.52.49

21 April 1864

Kessler, Thomas J., fl. 1843-1868

Autograph letter signed

Title: to his friends

Writes to his friends from camp. Informs them he received marching orders for tomorrow. Relays a rumor that General Robert E. Lee may be heading towards Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and they may head there too. Notes he sent a trunk of clothes home so he would not have to haul them. Discusses that his band made an appeal to the Secretary of War. Comments he is very discouraged and wants an honorable discharge. The letter has a watermark on the top left hand corner. Letter is addressed to his friends but envelope is addressed to his father, A. P. Kessler.

GLC03523.52.50

circa June 1865

Johnson, Andrew, 1808-1875

Pamphlet

Title: [Amnesty Proclamation]

Full printing of the oath with several circular letters appended. [The proclamation states the terms on which the citizens of the Southern states could be restored to their civil rights; Johnson's terms were much more stringent than Lincoln's, excluding 14 classes of prominent Confederates from taking the oath.] Housed in folder with .01 and .02.

GLC09326.03

5 November 1852

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Broadsheet

Title: To the voters of Oswego and Madison counties New York

Thanking them for electing him to a seat in Congress, and reprising his anti-slavery, pro-equality platform.

GLC09329.02

circa 3 March 1783

Manuscript document signed

Title: [Certificate of service for African American soldier Primas Hubbell]

Connecticut Line Continental Army, Revolutionary War African American soldier Primas Hubbell. Certification of service signed by three Kent, CT selectmen; with order for delivery of pay to Joseph Pratt, signed with "X" by Hubbell; and with attestation of above via Hubbel's appearance before Justice of the Peace Jedidiah Hubbel.

GLC09365.01

29 May 1783

Printed document signed

Title: [Receipt of payment]

Receipt of payment of eleven pounds, three shillings, and fourteen pence to Primas Hubbell, signed by selectman Joseph Pratt.

GLC09365.02

9 January 1784

Manuscript document signed

Title: [Certificate of enlistment and discharge for Samson Cuff]

Connecticut Line Continental Army, Revolutionary War African American soldier Samson Cuff. Certification of enlistment and discharge signed by four Windsor, CT selectmen. To the Committee of Paytable.

GLC09366.01

January 17, 1784

Manuscript document signed

Title: [pay request for Samson Cuff]

Pay request, signed "X" by Samson Cuff, and signed by Justice of the Peace Henry Allyn.

GLC09366.02

January 22, 1784

Phelps, Jesse, fl. 1784

Manuscript document signed

Title: [Receipt of payment]

Receipt of payment of eighteen pounds and ten shillings to Samson Cuff, signed by Jesse Phelps.

GLC09366.03

11 April 1831

Buchanan, James, 1791-1868

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Harriet Buchanan

The only U.S. president who never married, to his sister Harriet: "When you have determined (as I trust you will not) never to marry I shall cheerfully provide you a comfortable home. It would afford me great pleasure & promote my own comfort & happiness to have you for a house keeper. Still I think you ought to marry, should a favorable opportunity offer. There is nothing very desirable in the situation of an old maid; still it is less comfortless than that of an unhappy wife."

GLC09367

2 May 1862

Humphrey, Marshall, fl. 1806

Manuscript document signed

Title: to A.C. Moore

General orders to Col. A. C. Moore to recall all troops on furlough from the 29th Va. Volunteers: "Events render it imperative that there shall be no delay in executing this order. The country demands the energies of all its soldiers, and the General relies upon them to fulfill their whole duty at any sacrifice." The previous December, Marshall had threatened to arrest and court-martial Moore because he did not bring his troops to the defense of Abington quickly enough to suit the general.

GLC09368

January 27, 1863

Autograph letter signed

Title: to his brother

Re Burnside's ill-fated "Mud March." Firsthand account by a soldier in the 1st Mass. Volunteers, who writes to his brother: "…nor did our movement benefit the 'Glorious Cause' in the least, except it cause Burnside to be removed and a better man put in his boots, Say McClellan and then the movement will be of a vast benefit to that suffering part of the community known as the Army of the Potomac. I don't know as I am much the worse off now for the jaunt through the mud, and if Burnside be removed I will not complain but I think I got off cheaply, for it was about time for another slaughter,…

GLC09370

February 21, 1865

Owen, John, fl. 1865

Autograph letter signed

Title: to James

Captain of 36th Regiment U.S. Colored Troops, mentions the locations of fellow Harvard alums, including "[Robert Todd] Lincoln in the army," and the health of those released from POW camps. He announces the news that "at this moment [received from] the Orderly…'By telegraph…a despatch from Admiral Dahlgren that Charleston is evacuated & that he is running up to take possession - you will fire a…salute…for the Capture of Charleston & Columbia, U.S. Grant.…' Hurra for Dahlgren & Sherman - The fall of Ch. & Columbia ­ Yea! verily the end approaches & one last fight more…

GLC09371

9 July 1862

Broadside

Title: [Orders from the State of Maine]

Two Executive Orders and three General Orders from the State of Maine, printed together, re the necessity of raising additional troops for the Union cause. Bottom of page is a statement addressed to "the Patriotic Citizen Soldiery of Maine: …With the $100 cash bounty … the advantages of entering the service by voluntary enlistment, rather than by being detached or drafted, are most apparent. The adoption of the latter course, for want of volunteers, while it will deprive our citizens of the Government Bounty, premium and advance pay, will also deprive them of the honor of volunteering in this…

GLC09372

16 November 1846

Brown, Neill, fl. 1846

Autograph letter signed

Title: to a cousin

[Slavery] From Cleveland, Ohio to a cousin in North Carolina: "I am here surrounded by abolitionists, yea in the very hot bed of this class of people.… Three weeks since there was a negroe woman who said she was a fugitive slave from Mississippi, got up in the pulpit of one of the churches here and related her suffering while in slavery, more than three fourths of what she said of the usage or treatment of slave in the south I know to be false. A few nights after this in the same church 2 individuals who had been imprisoned in the penitentiary of some slave state for negro stealing or as they…

GLC09373

22 August 1871

Autograph letter signed

Title: to her cousin

Alabama woman writes to her cousin in Michigan about family news and her mother's illness, and how life has changed since Emancipation: "It does not seem possible that I could go through the same amount of labor and endure the anxiety and suspense of the past two months again. But one has not the most distant idea of what they can perform until circumstances forces them to exertion. Until our servants were freed, I was considered entirely too delicate to perform any kind of household work. And had any one told me that I could, or would in a few years, perform the entire work that was then…

GLC09375